Illicit cigarette trade a world-wide killer

A growing global trade in black-market cigarettes is killing tens of thousands of people a year, causing huge health problems and costing Governments billions of dollars, says a hard-hitting report just released.

A staggering 657 billion cigarettes a year are sold illicitly by organised crime gangs, half of all tobacco sold in some countries is contraband, and £24.6 billion ($62.8 billion) in taxes are never paid, it says.

Inefficient law enforcement, lax border controls and corruption among police and Government officials mean smugglers find it easier to move large consignments of stolen or counterfeit cigarettes in the developing world.

More than five million people a year die worldwide from tobacco use, and about 80 per cent of all smokers live in developing countries.

In countries including Bangladesh, Indonesia, Mexico and Egypt, very poor households spend up to 15 per cent of their incomes on tobacco products, says the World Health Organisation.

That can push families even deeper into poverty, because they are more likely to develop smoking-related illnesses than wealthier compatriots. About 1.2 million of the five million tobacco-related deaths annually are in South-east Asia, where almost half the world's poor live.

The report comes as representatives of Governments gather in Geneva to negotiate the first worldwide protocol on illicit trade in tobacco products. Heavily backed by many EU countries, the treaty is expected to lead to co-ordinated global action to try to tackle the problem.

Some African Administrations believe it will cost them money to implement. But campaigners say they will ultimately being able to increase the tax on legally sold cigarettes once the black market has been tackled.

The study, part-funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, has been written by Martin Raw of the UK Centre for Tobacco Control Studies at Nottingham University, David Merriman of Illinois University in Chicago, Hana Ross of the American Cancer Society and Luk Joossens of the Brussels-based Framework Convention Alliance pro-treaty organisation. It is called "How eliminating the global illicit cigarette trade would increase tax revenue and save lives".

While the black market accounts for 11.6 per cent of all cigarettes consumed worldwide, its market share is 9.8 per cent in well-off countries but 16.8 per cent on average in poorer ones.

In Georgia 50 per cent of all cigarettes sold are contraband, while 40 per cent of those in Uzbekistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania and Bolivia share that source. The figure stands at more than 20 per cent in 15 other, mainly poor, countries. Buyers are tempted by low prices, which prompt them to buy more and smoke more often.

Eradication of the illicit trade could save 132,000 lives annually in middle-income and poor families, the authors estimate.

THE DAMAGE

* 657 billion sold annually
* $62.8 billion in taxes never paid
* 11.6 per cent of all cigarettes consumed worldwide
* 9.8 per cent market share in wealthy countries
* 16.8 per cent market share on average in poorer countries
* 132,000 lives could be saved annually if illicit trade eradicated

- OBSERVER